Lakers Gameday | 12/05/07 | Lakers 111, Nuggets 107

Allen Iverson scored a season-high 51 points but Kobe Bryant's 25 led the Los Angeles Lakers to a 111-107 win over the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night.

Carmelo Anthony had 26 points and eight rebounds and Marcus Camby had 20 rebounds for the Nuggets. Vladimir Radmanovic scored 21 points and Derek Fisher added 20 for the Lakers.

Iverson was held scoreless in the fourth until his layup with 3:15 left gave Denver a 102-99 lead. They were his only two points of the period.

Andrew Bynum's alley-oop dunk cut the lead to one, and Radmanovic's free throw tied the game with two minutes left.

Bryant hit a pair of layups to give Los Angeles a 106-102 lead, and after Anthony scored, Bryant hit a jumper with 35.3 seconds left.

Kenyon Martin hit one of two free throws with 23.2 seconds left, but Fisher hit two foul shots to make it 110-105 with 15.8 seconds left. Anthony missed a 3-pointer and Fisher hit a free throw to seal the win.

Iverson, whose career high of 60 came against Orlando on Feb. 12, 2005, had 49 points through three quarters and was 17-for-23 from the field entering the fourth. He scored 16 of Denver's 30 points in the third, when the Nuggets took advantage of Bryant's foul trouble to tie the game at 88.

Iverson tied the game at 73 when he hit a soft jumper in the lane and was fouled by Fisher. He hit the free throw to give him 41 with 5:31 left in the third quarter. Thirty seconds later, he made a jumper a for a 75-73 lead, and then he hit two free throws to extend the lead to four points.

The Lakers rallied to take an 80-79 lead, but Iverson drove the lane, and when two Lakers collapsed on him, he kicked the ball to Eduardo Najera, who hit a 3-pointer.

Notes: Iverson's 33 first-half points tied his career high in a first half, which he set at Milwaukee on Dec. 18, 2004. His career-high for a half was 36 at Orlando on Nov. 10, 1999. ... Iverson's 51 points are the most by a Nuggets player since Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf had 51 at Utah on Dec. 7, 1995. ... The Nuggets' franchise record for points in a game is held by David Thompson, who had 73 against Detroit on April 9, 1978. ... Bryant left the game with a hurt left shoulder after he took a hard foul with 2.5 seconds left in the first period.

The Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets have two of the league's top scorers, but it hasn't helped with either team's consistency much recently.

Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony face off for the second time this year as their teams meet Wednesday night in Denver.

Bryant and Anthony are among the league's top five scorers at 27.2 and 25.3 points per game, respectively. Anthony's teammate, Allen Iverson, is among the top 10 at 23.5 points.

However, despite the impressive scoring averages from their stars, both Denver (11-7) and Los Angeles (10-8) have been inconsistent. The Lakers had dropped two straight and five of seven before a 116-95 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday.

Bryant, weakened by the case of the stomach flu, scored 15 of his 20 points in the first half. He played 29 minutes before sitting out much of the fourth quarter with the game already in hand.

The shooting guard refused to go to the hospital before the game to get treatment.

"It's tough, but as the leader of this ball club you have to come out and play through that," he said. "Set the tone early, and I was able to do that."

Bryant scored 13 points on 4 of 6 shooting in the first quarter, and finished 6 of 12.

"I made a point to come out and be really aggressive. Kind of set the tone a little bit," Bryant said. "No matter if we're short-handed or not, we have to come out here and take care of business."

Center Andrew Bynum missed the game after spending part of the day at a Minneapolis hospital to receive IV fluids because of the same stomach problem plaguing Bryant. It was not known whether Bynum, who had started eight straight games and is averaging 10.9 points and 10.1 rebounds, would be available Wednesday.

With the win, the Lakers snapped a three-game road losing streak and improved to 4-4 there. Los Angeles, though, has lost three straight and six of its last eight trips to Denver.

Since getting routed 127-99 by the Lakers at the Staples Center on Nov. 29, the Nuggets have bounced back with consecutive victories, including a 115-89 win over the Miami Heat on Sunday. Anthony scored 30 points, Kenyon Martin added a season-high 20 and Marcus Camby pulled down 21 rebounds as Denver jumped out to a 37-17 lead after one quarter and cruised thereafter.

The Nuggets held Miami to 37.5 percent shooting and scored 24 points off 16 Heat turnovers.

"That's the way we want to play, especially at home," said Martin, who reached double figures for just the sixth time in 16 games. "We want to use the altitude to our advantage."

Denver is 8-2 at home, and the two losses were by a combined seven points. The Nuggets are outscoring opponents by an average of 15.0 points at home, scoring 111.4 points per game.

In the first game between the teams, Bryant scored 24 points but sat out the fourth quarter while Sasha Vujacic scored 19 of his career-high 22 in the final period - including seven in a game-breaking run - as the Lakers outscored the Nuggets 46-24 in the last 12 minutes.

The Nuggets have won three of the last four games between the teams.